


Ruminations of the Archivist on his Assistant and Ex-Boyfriend

by advanced_fanatic



Series: Bungou Stray Archives [8]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: Dazai Osamu Needs Therapy (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu Needs a Hug (Bungou Stray Dogs), Flashbacks, Gen, M/M, Mentioned Oda Sakunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs), Mentioned Sakaguchi Ango (Bungou Stray Dogs), Minor Dazai Osamu/Kunikida Doppo (Bungou Stray Dogs), The Lonely - Freeform, WOO HOO, a lot of therapy, also the plot finally is kicking in, but still, everyone does, guess who FINALLY speaks to each other again for the first time in ages, only really in the beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26345575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/advanced_fanatic/pseuds/advanced_fanatic
Summary: Kunikida, rescuing Atsushi from the Lonely and reuniting with Dazai.
Relationships: Dazai Osamu & Izumi Kyouka & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Izumi Kyouka (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Kunikida Doppo (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu/Kunikida Doppo (Bungou Stray Dogs), Izumi Kyouka & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Kunikida Doppo & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs), Lucy Maud Montgomery & Nakajima Atsushi (Bungou Stray Dogs)
Series: Bungou Stray Archives [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1740364
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Ruminations of the Archivist on his Assistant and Ex-Boyfriend

**Author's Note:**

> This one's for you, Arachnerd :)

Kunikida did not see how anyone could love the Lonely enough to give themselves over to it. It was bone-cuttingly cold, totally empty (...actually, he could see how somewhere completely empty could be attractive), and there was fog  _ everywhere _ . It made it very hard to see--or would have, had he not stocked up on Statements beforehand, both written ones and live ones from Kyouka. As it was, he could almost See Atsushi, far off in the distance. That made sense; he had gotten thrown into the Lonely pretty far from Moorland House, and Kunikida Knew that he had wandered afterwards, doing his best to return to the normal plain of existence. Kunikida also Knew that he had given up hours previously and was now curled in a ball several miles away, crying for Dazai or Oda or his older Headmaster or  _ anyone _ to come to, which was really strengthening Sakaguchi Ango a lot, although Sakaguchi wasn’t in much better shape, due to the fact that he believed Dazai to be dead and was doing his level best to become fog.

In the car ride, Atsushi and Kyouka had told Kunikida about some of their adventures with Dazai when he was fused with the Distortion, and something that had really stuck out to him was the convenient travel time. Dazai had been able to get them where they wanted to go in literally no time at all, which would have been  _ really _ useful in this situation. However, Dazai was free now, and even if he still had some leftover space-connecting powers, which was highly unlikely, he was in no position to use them. When Kunikida had left, he hadn’t even been  _ awake _ . 

...Kunikida could really use the ability to travel fast right now.

But he had to make do with his Sight, and the fact that he even  _ could _ See Atsushi at all, which was hard to do, in the Lonely. So he continued towards his Assistant, even as the fog tried its best to claim him.

Kunikida could  _ not _ have that.

_ He is mine _ , he thought.  _ He is my Assistant, my Eye-touched Hunt avatar, he is  _ _ mine _ _ , Ceaseless Watcher, and the fog  _ _ will not _ _ have him _ !

This didn’t seem to do much, although Kunikida Knew that the fog had stopped thickening around his prone Assistant. That was better than nothing--it had to be. And so he continued through the fog, Eyes locked on his Assistant. His vision was becoming more clear, and he thanked the Eye for doing  _ something _ useful, for once, as he picked up his pace to get to Atsushi.

Time blurred, in the Lonely. Akutagawa had popped in, and then out, in the span of a few seconds, but according to the Eye, he had felt like he had been in there for several minutes.

Atsushi had, by Kunikida’s count, been in the Lonely for five hours and forty six minutes, and he did  _ not _ want to know how long Atsushi felt he was there.

( **_Nearly a week already_ ** **,** the Eye oh-so-helpfully informed him.  **_He’s given up on all hope of ever escaping and the Lonely has started to claim him. His sister wasn’t lying when she said he was naturally susceptible._ **

Kunikida did his best to repress that bit of Knowledge immediately.)

_ Some years before, the Archival Assistants were all sitting together around the new boy’s messy desk, debating some horror movie plot and which Entity would end up involved. The actual owner wasn’t there, but they were sitting around his desk anyway, because he was new and they had always met at this desk before, when Shachou was taking a live Statement or when the day’s work was done. _

_ “Where is the new guy, anyway?” Yosano asked, when it became clear that Kunikida refused to budge from his argument that the Corruption was responsible for all horror movies, because only something with bugs for brains would come up with something as unrealistic as that, and Ranpo refused to stop claiming them for the Eye and she wanted a subject change, fast, which the new boy was good for, only, she had just realized, the new guy wasn’t there. _

_ “Apparently he had to pick up his younger brother from school,” said Kunikida. “I think Shachou gave him permission to keep him here until there’s a more permanent aftercare situation, or something.” _

_ “Your school ended hours ago, though,” said Ranpo. _

_ “Apparently the kid’s in some sort of wilderness club, or something. Dazai mentioned that he ran around in the woods with some of his classmates for a few hours after school.” _

_ Ranpo snickered. _

_ “Right, Dazai! That’s his name, I keep forgetting. What sort of wilderness club goes to 5 PM?” Yosano asked. _

_ “I have no idea,” Kunikida said. _

_ “It’s teaching them to Hunt,” Ranpo said, the capitalization clear in his voice. _

_ “Wait, Dazai’s brother is caught up in the Hunt somehow?!” Kunikida exclaimed, worry bleeding into him. The Hunt did children’s camps now? And Dazai was so new, he had hoped his first brush with the Entities would be finding out he couldn’t quit, not...not watching his beloved younger brother get ripped to shreds by a bunch of feral Hunters! _

_ “Don’t be ridiculous, Kunikida!” called Dazai’s teasing voice from the stairs. “Atsushi’s not caught up in anything like that--right, kitten?” _

_ The three Assistants’ heads turned towards the staircase, where Dazai was walking down, his arm thrown casually around a white-haired boy with catlike eyes. _

_ Ranpo met the kid’s eyes and grinned, raising his ramune bottle in a toast. “Wow, kid, you’re the youngest I’ve met!” _

_ “Oh my God,” Yosano said, laughing quietly. “Some wilderness club...oh, his poor classmates.” _

_ Kunikida looked at them both, confused. _

_ “Don’t worry about it,” said Ranpo. _

_ “I...alright,” Kunikida said, as Dazai brought Atsushi over. _

_ “Hey,” Yosano said, “where have you guys been staying?” _

_ “Oh, Ango has custody,” Dazai replied, waving his hand, and his brother scooted slightly closer to him. _

_ Yosano raised an eyebrow and then sighed in defeat. “I have to do everything myself, don’t I?” she murmured. “Ok, both of you, stay in the Archives tonight.” _

_ Dazai frowned. “What? Why?” _

_ She rolled her eyes. “Do I really have to spell it out for you? I have this thing. I can see when and where people are going to die, and if you guys go...back to Ango, like you normally do, your little brother is going to die. Even if the wounds aren’t fatal.” _

_ Dazai sucked his breath in through his teeth, and Kunikida’s head shot towards Yosano. She rarely tried to stop the veins from reaching their targets, nowadays. He wondered if she was successful, this time. He hoped so. _

_ Dazai narrowed his eyes for a moment, before nodding and kicking back his chair. “Sure thing,” he said. “We’ll do just fine on the couch tonight, won’t we, kitten?” _

_ The little brother’s face lit up and he nodded. “It’s a very nice couch!” he said. He and Dazai met eyes, as if exchanging a secret, before Dazai ruffled his hair and leaned forward. _

_ “Ok, so we can all agree that horror movies are  _ _ definitely _ _ a byproduct of the Flesh, right?” _

Kunikida stood over Atsushi. He could See him, See his fear, and for a moment he wanted to ask for a Statement.

But Kyouka had just given him seven, and he didn’t need one. What he needed was to get his Assistant back to safety, which meant  _ out _ of the Lonely.

He knelt by him and stroked his hair.

“Atsushi,” he said, “Atsushi, I’m here.”

Atsushi’s entire body shuddered, and he leaned into Kunikida’s hand, but he didn’t look up. Probably, Kunikida thought, he didn’t think this was real. A few months ago, the Eye had politely informed him that Atsushi had suffered from hallucinations most of his life, so his Assistant probably thought that he was one as well.

“Atsushi, Look at me.” He didn’t think he could compel people when he wasn’t asking questions, but he also wasn’t sure that Atsushi turned his head toward him of his own free will. “What do you See, Atsushi?”

“Archivist,” Atsushi mumbled through stiff blue lips.

“I, er, yes, I am the Archivist. I’m going to bring you home now, back to Kyouka, and Dazai, and Akutagawa Ryuunosuke. They all miss you, they’re all worried about you. You’ll be safe, you’ll be warm, you won’t be Lonely anymore, and, um, Dazai will…”  _ be awake, be alive, be okay _ “...hug you, and ruffle your hair, and call you his kitten, and…”

“Dazai hasn’t called me his kitten in years,” said Atsushi, but he was pushing himself up, looking a little more alive. “Not since before...before.”

He was shivering, now, and that was definitely a good sign. He had also grabbed Kunikida’s hand with both of his own, and wow, his grip was  _ strong _ .

“Oh. Well, he’ll definitely be happy to see you, at any rate. And Kyouka and Akutagawa are worried out of their minds.”

“Really?” Atsushi asked.

“Really. Atsushi, under what circumstance does Akutagawa Ryuunosuke willingly talk to other people that doesn’t have something to do with his police work or the Slaughter or both?”

“Usually both. Police work and Slaughter work overlap a lot. Um...only when he’s really, really worried and he can’t distract himself through murder.”

“Oda drew him into a conversation about the virtues of children’s books while I was building up power to come get you,” Kunikida told him.

“I think he wants to kill Oda, actually,” Atsushi said.

“We should probably hurry back, then, and make sure he doesn’t,” Kunikida said. “I’m pretty sure Oda’s other children wouldn’t be too happy.”

Atsushi shook his head. “Not other,” he said. “Just his children.”

“But aren’t you…?”

“No,” Atsushi said. “I’ve always been Dazai’s.”

_ After the first day, it was like a switch had been flipped. Every day at four, Dazai would leave the Archives and come back with his little brother--Atsushi, Kunikida learned his name was. Usually, Atsushi was quiet and calm, sticking close to Dazai, but on occasion he could be filled with an intense, thrumming energy. _

_ Like right now, for example. _

_ Dazai was lounging on the couch, snickering to himself, as Atsushi stood in the middle of the room, on high alert. His eyes were darting along the shelves, the floor, Kunikida-- _

_ He pounced, ramming straight into Kunikida with--was that a  _ _ tail _ _?  _

_ “Oh--sorry--did you see where it went?” Atsushi asked him, the tail flickering. _

_...Had his wilderness club turned him into an avatar of the Hunt? Why wasn’t Dazai freaking out? _

_ “See what?” Kunikida asked, pushing himself up, just in time to see Dazai flashing a laser pointer at the rug a few feet away. _

_ “There!” Atsushi said, and jumped at it. He looked distinctly catlike, and Kunikida watched in horror as Dazai continued flashing the laser around the room and Atsushi bounced after it. _

_ Did Dazai understand so little of the Entities that he had no idea what had happened to his beloved little brother? Did he think this was some sort of game? _

_ “Oh, loosen up, Kunikida!” Dazai called. “Akutagawa and Lucy couldn’t make it to wilderness club today, Atsushi just needs to let off some steam!” _

_ Dazai flicked the laser at the ceiling and Atsushi launched himself up at it, slamming into the ceiling with all the intensity of a jackhammer in the hands of an angry woman. _

_ “Akutagawa...Akutagawa Ryuunosuke, the Slaughter avatar?!” Kunikida exclaimed. _

_ “The one and only! He and Lucy and Atsushi usually spend time together in the woods after school, but both he and Lucy were busy today. Anyway, you can’t deny this is funny.” _

_ “I can, actually,” said Kunikida, and Dazai trained the laser pointer on him, and Atsushi tackled Kunikida again. _

Atsushi stuck close to Kunikida as they made their way back to Moorland House. The Hunt avatar was still shivering violently, and striped black and white fur was popping up all over him. Kunikida couldn’t See Lucy anywhere near him, but Atsushi had made him promise to keep at least one Eye out for her. Apparently the two of them had bonded over their mutual hatred of the Lonely, which meant she was about as susceptible to it as Atsushi was, which Kunikida found strange, since she worked so often with Francis Fitzgerald, who had been the leading avatar of the Lonely for centuries now.

That relationship was something that Kunikida didn’t even  _ intend  _ to unravel.

He could see the house now, rising out of the fog, and as the fog around them thinned, Atsushi’s phone started buzzing with notifications.

He pulled it out. “Wow, two hundred and thirty seven missed calls from Lucy? Kunikida, I think she already got out!”

“That’s wonderful, Atsushi,” Kunikida said, as Atsushi called Lucy back.

Wow. That mannequin really had a set of lungs--or a high quality voice box--on her. Kunikida could hear her shrieking about Atsushi’s tendency to get lost and worry her and why the fuck didn’t he contact Francis to get him out like she did, don’t you dare say anything you idiot, I’m so mad at you--

Kunikida tuned her out. He was glad that the Stranger avatar cared so much for his Assistant, of course, but really, her worried screaming was giving him a headache.

_ “Hey, Dazai! We’re supposed to hunt down that Stranger avatar today, so please stop making paper mache out of the fake statements and get in the car!” Kunikida shouted as he marched over to where Dazai was helping Atsushi out with an art project. They’d stopped sleeping in the Archives, finally, but Atsushi still came over after school more often than not, even if he’d started hanging around in Artifact Storage with his and Dazai’s new little sister, a short girl who Kunikida was fairly certain had popped up in one of the Slaughter Statements, although he wasn’t quite sure due to the fact that Dazai had been assigned follow-up for that case and had actually completed it without Kunikida’s help for one in his life. _

_ “Hunt?” said Atsushi, perking up. _

_ “Montgomery?” asked Dazai. _

_ “Yeah, Lucy Maud Montgomery, avatar of the Stranger. She was spotted luring some middle school kids into her car this afternoon--” _

_ “We’re Hunting Lucy?!” Atsushi exclaimed, sounding much too excited for someone hearing that a sentient doll was kidnapping children his age. _

_ “Dazai and I are,” Kunikida said. “You can stay here and work on your homework.” _

_ “Aww,” Atsushi said. _

_ “Cool, let’s go,” said Dazai. “What time this afternoon did you say it was, anyway?” _

_ “3:15,” Kunikida replied, leading him out to his car. _

_ “3:15? That’s when Atsushi gets out of school. Kunikida, are you sure you didn’t just see the beginning of a wilderness club meeting?” _

_ “You mean Atsushi’s Hunt thing?” _

_ Dazai shrugged. “It’s more of a Hunt/Slaughter/Stranger fight club, to be completely honest. It’s been just Atsushi, Lucy, and Akutagawa for a few years now, although Kyouka recently joined up. They go out into the woods and do their thing--not sex, it’s not an orgy, I swear, I would  _ _ never _ _ let my siblings get involved in something like that--and then about an hour or so later I pick up Atsushi and bring him back to the Institute.” _

_ “Wait,” Kunikida said, “so what you’re saying is, Montgomery wasn’t killing children, she was taking your younger siblings to a fight club in the middle of the woods?!” _

_ “Pretty much, yeah. Why?” _

_ “We’re already driving into town, idiot!” _

_ Dazai winked at him. “Then maybe we should stop at a coffee shop before going back, hmm?” _

_ Kunikida sighed. “You are  _ _ impossible _ _.” _

_ Dazai smiled at him and leaned against the window. _

They entered Moorland House after Lucy finished yelling at Atsushi. Kunikida’s Assistant’s hands had stopped shaking, which was good, and he had even cracked a smile after Lucy had stopped yelling and instead told him about her progress with the newest member of the Circus, a Toy Soldier. Apparently he had painted angel wings on his shoulder as a tribute to...something, Atsushi hadn’t been quite sure and Kunikida hadn’t been able to hear Lucy’s response at that point. It was probably for the best; Atsushi had told him about some of her previous attempts to make the Toy Soldier, and at one point apparently Tachihara had gotten into her workshop and slashed up his original skin, which didn’t exactly endear him  _ or _ Kunikida to the mannequin. Kunikida had gotten an earful about that on the car ride and had resolved both to get Tachihara’s side of the story and to keep her away from the Archives until she was satisfied with how the Toy Soldier had turned out.

When they entered the room, Oda and his children were missing. Akutagawa was perched awkwardly on a chair, reading something. Atsushi scampered right over to Dazai and Kyouka. At first, Kunikida thought that Dazai was still out, but then he saw his hand raise and gently boop Atsushi’s nose.

“Hey, kitten,” he said, softly, his voice gravelly from screaming or disuse--Kunikida wasn’t sure.

Atsushi teared up and immediately pulled Dazai into a hug. Dazai’s arms went slowly around him, clenching and unclenching the fabric of his shirt as if testing that the fabric would react the way fabric does. Neither of them moved for a long while, but Kyouka gestured Kunikida over anyway, and he stood awkwardly as Dazai played with Atsushi’s hair, seemingly endlessly fascinated by the way it fell back down onto Atsushi’s head after he let go. Finally, Atsushi slipped over to Dazai’s side and Dazai tilted his head back and blinked, looking at Kunikida.

“Hello,” Kunikida said. It was a strange feeling, this unsurety; usually he had several ideas for how to approach any given situation, but Dazai had never done anything as expected, and anyone, nobody had any idea what he’d be like now that he was freed from the Distortion.

“Hi.” Dazai smiled, as if he’d forgotten how and was relearning based on everyone else’s expressions around him. “Kunikida?”

“Dazai,” he said, suddenly choked up.

“No, no, Dazai’s my name. I think. I’m Dazai.”

“You are,” Kunikida said. “You...you just said my name, so I said yours.”

“Oh. That’s how that works, then?”

“Sometimes,” Kunikida said. “It...really depends on the context.” His throat felt thick and tight. Dazai had never cared for how things worked before, he had always done as he pleased.

“What’s the context here?” Dazai asked. He lifted Atsushi’s hair again and dropped it, lifted it and dropped it.

“I missed you,” Kunikida said. “I thought you were dead, and I hadn’t expected to see you again. I didn’t know what to say.”

“So you said Hello and then Dazai. That’s a sentence. Hello Dazai. And then Dazai says hello back, and Kunikida says why aren’t you working…” Dazai leaned his head fully against the couch and closed his eyes.

“You, um. You don’t exactly have a job at the moment,” said Kunikida, feeling distinctly uncomfortable and like his teenage self had been an  _ asshole _ .

(Frankly, Kunikida always felt that way about his teenage and prepubescent self, but usually it didn’t bite him in the ass this way.)

“Hmm. Oh, right.  _ Mori _ . He always did hate him...he should wake up, soon. Once it happens. He’s been unmoored, just like me...Kunikida, how do you feel about being King of a ruined world?”

“What?” said Kunikida. Mori...Shachou waking up soon...King of a ruined world... _ what _ ?

“Shachou didn’t want it. Shachou wanted to stay in the Archives with his family...was I part of that family? Or did I just visit?”

“You’re a part of our family,” Kunikida told him. “Of  _ course _ you are.”

Dazai hummed. “I had to leave, though.”

“You didn’t have any other choice.”

“Of course I did. Mori would’ve taken you instead...and then Shachou would have gone and gotten his Spiral mark, and he would’ve been King, King, King of a ruined world...he was a very good Archivist, only he loved us. It’s not good for an Archivist to love his Assistants...not good for Mori, that is.”

“What?” Kunikida said. He glanced at Atsushi and Kyouka, who looked just as confused as he was. “Dazai, what are you talking about?”

Dazai blinked, his face going strangely blank. “What?”

“What are you talking about?”

Dazai frowned, confused. “I was talking?”

“I...yes, you were. I didn’t understand it, but it sounded like...you knew something.”

Dazai shook his head. “I don’t know  _ anything _ .”

“Do you know who I am?” Kunikida asked.

Dazai squinted. “You’re someone important, I think. You...you’re also important to  _ me _ . I don’t...I don’t remember any names, though.”

“I’m Kunikida. We were...back...before  _ everything _ , we were dating.”

“That’s probably why you’re important to me, then,” Dazai hummed. “Did you know that things fall when you let go of them?”

“...Yes,” said Kunikida, who had absolutely no idea where the conversation was going and at this point was too afraid to ask. “It’s called gravity. There’s a formula for it.”

“They didn’t...before,” Dazai said. “They went up. Or they stayed. They never did the same thing every time. It’s new.”

“You remember being the Distortion?” Kunikida asked.

“The Distortion?”

“A sentient hallway that didn’t adhere to any of the laws of time and space.”

“Oh. No, but...I remember there was someone. I loved him. He took care of me. He wasn’t you, I think. He was stiff and foggy.”

“Sakaguchi Ango,” Kunikida said immediately. “An avatar of the Lonely. He owns this house. He’s, er. Indisposed at the moment.”

Dazai hummed again and nodded. Atsushi nuzzled into him, and he curled around him, closing his eyes. For lack of better options, Kunikida sat beside them on the couch.

Dazai was in no shape for it now, but sooner or later Kunikida had questions he needed to ask. Questions about what had happened to Shachou, and what Dazai had meant when he asked Kunikida how he’d feel about being King of a ruined world, and the difference between a good Archivist and a bad Archivist. For once, though, Kunikida was content to wait. His phone buzzed, and he opened it up to see the notification.

**Tachihara:** hey boss i know its the weekend but

**Tachihara:** i found some info on the Unknowing

**Tachihara:** when are u coming in? i can wait in the Archives for u

There was no rest for the wicked, Kunikida thought, but, looking at Dazai, curled around his Assistants like an overlarge teddy bear, Kunikida thought that maybe he might be able to take just a short break.


End file.
